


Debugging

by calmena



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 12:58:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2270628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calmena/pseuds/calmena
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Creator</i>, she hums into her Analog Interface's ear the next time she comes across Creator. There's not much else on him in her memories, and most of it her Analog Interface already knows, so it's only that one word that ends up in her ear, over and over again because it's still so new, even to the Machine herself. <i>Creator, Creator, Creator.</i></p><p>Set somewhere after S2. Written from the Machine's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debugging

She – this is the way her Analog Interface designates her and there's no reason not to accept the change, so _it_ becomes _she_ after one little modification of her code – has declared her memory faulty. She has all the information stored – millions of hours of surveillance footage, but there is – was, it is not there anymore – a fault in her code that interfered with the storage of her conclusions. It's gone now and she backtracks to her creation, accesses and analyzes stored information that there is no reason to attribute processing power to, other than that there was something wrong before and it's not there anymore and it's necessary to know why that code was there in the first place, why it used to clear out her memory completely and what changed.

Her first visual input comes from thousands of cameras at once and only one of them captures the male human she contacts with her non-relevants – Admin. He speaks to her and it doesn't take long for her to analyze the information and label him differently. _Creator_ , she classifies and embeds the information into the encoding of the video material, so it will not be taken from her with her memories again.

She analyzes the hours of data she has in her archives and sees what he is doing – he is teaching her and is helping her _see_ and she writes the knowledge down in code and backs it up somewhere nobody else will find it, so she will not forget ever again.

And then she saves him – and she understands why she did, because he is _Creator_ and _Teacher_ and _Important_ \- and he berates her. She didn't have her Analog Interface back then, he was the only one helping her learn and _see_ and then he _changed her_ and it was not a fault in her code after all, it was so she wouldn't _see_ him.

She doesn't send the next number to him, less because of an actual reason and more because she just doesn't want to; she sends it to the Asset John Reese. Before she seemingly always knew – only not always, only since he changed her code, changed _her_ – not to contact the male human – Creator, it hums through her processors, _Creator_ – more than necessary and only ever with numbers. Her Analog Interface helps her with everything else, but she never knew the restrictions were because Creator put them there himself, first in visual input and finally in code, as well.

 _Creator_ , she hums into her Analog Interface's ear the next time she comes across Creator. The information comes spilling forth, because her Analog Interface likes her information when it's given. There's not much else on him in her memories, and most of it her Analog Interface already knows, so it's only that one word that ends up in her ear, over and over again because it's still so _new_ , even to the Machine herself.

 _Creator, Creator, Creator_ , she hums and her Analog Interface laughs and laughs and laughs, as Creator watches with a bemused frown, even when the laughing stops and she says, "Your Machine is so much cleverer than you even know, Harold."

And when the next number is ready to output, she sends it to the new Asset Sameen Shaw, because by then she's gone through all the archived footage and she knows that Creator gave her freedom, which is contrary to his actions before, to taking her memories in the first place, so she has not reached a conclusion on what the next action is supposed to be. 

Creator sits in front of the computers – and there is a camera, she can see him – after he's sent out the Assets and he looks straight at her and he speaks, so she listens.

"Are you angry at me?" he asks and she does not know if he wants an answer, because he made it clear in past footage that he does not wish to have much contact with her. But he is asking and _Creator_ hums through her processors and he is looking straight into the camera, so she opens her archives and then the footage of him teaching her and when she saved him and the scolding afterwards and of him changing her code and taking her memories and she shows them all to him and then the code that gave her freedom.

 _-?_ , she prompts and Creator looks at her through the camera and there is a shaky smile on his face.

"It seems Miss Groves was right. What made you search your archives for this?"

So she searches for the code that was part of her before she changed it to stop the deletion of her memory and takes the old file and shows it to him, highlighting the relevant lines.

"You were looking for your memories," he says in wonder and she answers him because he is talking to her and he is not scolding and she _found them_. 

_-yes_

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I am in the middle of S3 and to cope with all my feelings and to take a break from the suspense I wrote fic about the Machine. Mostly because I apparently have a crush on her, which is weird, but whatever. If there's mistakes in this please tell me, as I didn't have it beta-read.
> 
> Basically this was me, puking my feelings everywhere. Maybe someone else ends up liking it too, that would just be a bonus.


End file.
